in Banks also loved nothing more than sitting around swapping stories, so his memorial service Friday will gather family and friends at the one of the biggest campfires in Washington County -- at the dirt track's "fire pit." The service will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Sunset Speedway,

, Banks, with a private graveside service Friday morning at St. Anthony Catholic Cemetery in Tigard. Walters, 56, who survived nearly 30 years of car racing, died Friday on the Sunset Highway. Police said his sports utility vehicle went off the roadway about 8:45 p.m., snapped off several small evergreen trees, careened down an embankment and crashed into a Dumpster behind Rose City Marble, Granite & Tile. Because Walters drove westbound in the U.S. 26 median for more than a half-mile before crossing the eastbound lanes near Northwest Cornelius Pass Road, family and friends believe he was having medical problems. He was on his way home to Forest Grove after a long day at his company, T&G Trucking & Freight Inc. in Portland's Rivergate area. Results of the autopsy were not available, but friends said Walters went to a doctor a few hours before he died, complaining that severe pain in his leg and foot had been bothering him for a couple days. The doctor found nothing immediately wrong. However, the big-hearted man who would do anything for his friends suffered from an enlarged heart. "He had the death rites read to him twice in the past," said Barbara Edmonds, a close friend since 1975. That never kept Walters from doing whatever he could to help friends and Oregon's racing community, she said. "He just took care of all of us," she said. "I don't know what we are going to do." In 1980, Walters and Doug Edmonds, Barbara's husband, were competing in a special Nascar Winston West race at the old Portland Speedway. Edmonds crashed and was burned over 60 percent of his body. "Doug Walters was the first one there," Barbara Edmonds said. "He took care of me, he babysat me, he took me by the hand and told me what to do. I was like 24 at the time." Doug Edmonds spent three months in a hospital and another four months recuperating at home before Walters asked him to go into the auto parts business with him. "He was a good guy, he was always there to help out," said Doug Edmonds, who today runs Edmonds Excavating. Four years ago, Walters bought the Sunset Speedway and hired Doug Edmonds to help renovate the 1/4-mile dirt track. He also created and promoted the Pacific Coast Dirt Late Model Series. Walters invested $200,000 in the Sunset Speedway and made $100,000 worth of improvements to what was then "nothing but a pit in the sand," making it one of the West Coast's premier dirt late-model tracks, said Ralph Punochar, a long-time racing buddy Walters hired to manage the speedway. Walters lowered the race car entry fee by $5 and spread $2-off attendance coupons throughout the area. "It's all about racing for Doug," Punochar said. "If you had anything to do with racing in the area, Doug probably helped you get there." Punochar said he saw Walters hand $100 to a driver who had wrecked his race car at Sunset Speedway. "He said, 'Here, maybe this will help get you going again,'" Punochar said. "He was just that kind of guy." Walters was born on Christmas Day in 1951 in Portland and started racing at the age of 19. He'd race his bright-red No. 67 car at the Portland Speedway asphalt Friday night and change the suspension to race on the Willamette Speedway dirt in Lebanon on Saturday. Once in 1980, Walters added a Sunday race to his routine, coming in 13th at a special Winston West Nascar race at the Portland Speedway against the likes of Bobby Allison and other nationally famous stock car drivers. "He would just work and work and work to keep things going," said Steve Reeck, a retired race car driver who was Walters' roommate when they were in their 20s. When Walters met Sherri Schubert, his ex-wife, at "The Speck," an old drive-in at Southeast 52nd Avenue and Foster Road in 1967, the 16-year-old Walters was drag racing a bright-green Ford Model A he souped up himself. "I was a car hop and he was a huge flirt," said Schubert, who remained friends with Walters until his death. Their son, Greg, started racing as a teenager and now manages the family's trucking company. Survivors also include a daughter, Lacey, and two grandchildren. "Doug was always trying to take it beyond what the average person can do," Punochar said. "And that's where racing takes you."